


Parallel

by Darkfrog24 (Ithil), Ithil



Series: Nine [3]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, F/M, Froggy gonna FIX THIS, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-28
Updated: 2019-06-18
Packaged: 2020-02-09 08:14:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18634273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ithil/pseuds/Darkfrog24, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ithil/pseuds/Ithil
Summary: Sometimes, the idea that changes your life comes from more than one place.





	1. Knowing

**Author's Note:**

> This contains massive spoilers for Avengers: Endgame. It's meant to be not-incompatible with "Nine," though it should be readable as a straight Engame 'fic.

"What happened to Gamora? Did Armor Guy make her dissolve?"

Nebula looked up. "Tell him."

"I'm not sure, man," said Banner. "She might've got pulled back to her own universe when the pressure on the timeline resolved. I could run some numbers but..."

"Also had two good legs under her," Rocket added as he pulled a bit of shrapnel out of Groot's finger. "Could've just blown this popsicle stand."

"That Gamora never met you," said Nebula. "She would only strike you in the genitals again."

"But is she alive?"

It was no small thing, when someone you loved looked at you as if you were a stranger. Like coming home to a house you'd lived in for years and finding your key didn't work in the lock.

"I'd rather she was alive and had no idea who I was than when she was dead. It's a big deal to just know."

Steve didn't hear the rest.

He stared at the compass in his hand, then clicked it shut.  
.  
.  
.


	2. Chapter 2

2023

Bucky walked over to Steve.

"Time travel, huh? Space wasn't enough?"

Steve shook his head without looking up.

Bucky craned his neck toward the compass in his hand.

"You saw her?"

Steve nodded.

"Nineteen seventy," said Buck. "That's twenty-six years since—"

"Didn't matter," said Steve.

"Did you talk to her?"

Steve shook his head. "Would've stopped the mission cold. And..."

_And what would I say?_

Bucky sat down. "'I didn't die,'" he started. "'Sorry I wasn't there to help with all that stuff you did, but I'm glad you got to do it.'" He picked up his fingers as if he were counting. "'You were right not to save me—'"

Steve looked up as if Bucky had slapped him.

"You'd have wasted years off your life trying. You could've gotten us both killed." He gestured to the city behind them. "You didn't have what they used to bring me back."

Steve said nothing, turning the compass in his glove.

"I just wish I hadn't hurt so many people," Bucky finished.

Steve looked back at him, mouth pressed tight.

"You have to try, right?"

.  
.  
.

1970

 

He was going to drop off the tesseract and go home.

He was going to drop off the tesseract and leave a letter in her office. Something on period paper. He could put it in an envelope, date it 1944, a goodbye and good luck...

The intruder alarm went off.

He was going to take the pen on her desk and write something, some of the words that had kept him awake at night.

There were footsteps in the hallway outside.

He had to activate the device and go home.

The doorknob rattled where he hadn't locked it. 

He had to go home.

Two armed agents burst into the room. He put his hands up. Slowly. As if this had always been the plan.

"I'll talk to Margaret Carter," he said, "or Howard Stark."

.  
.  
.

1955

The bell rang as the door to the diner slid open. Then feet hitting the floor, the rhythm just a little bit off.

He didn't look up from the newspaper.

"You were supposed to put your hat on the rack."

The footsteps stopped.

"You're not supposed to keep it on inside. That's what the rack is for." He put down the paper. "Queens," he said.

The kid tipped his head to the side, fedora and all.

"Okay if I sit down?"

Steve nodded at the opposite seat. "How did you find me?" he asked.

Peter dipped his chin toward the window. "Store opening next door is going to make the newspaper. Your face is in the background." He slid into the booth. "Officially, I'm here to tell you you have to come back because of U.N. resolution number something or other about damage to the timeline." He watched Steve raise an eyebrow. "I'm also supposed to tell you you're not going to be prosecuted what with there being no laws against what you did when you did it."

"And unofficially?"

"Unofficially I'm giving a friend of a friend a ride home," he said, fingers spread flat on the table.

Steve leaned back in his seat.

"Look," Parker dropped his voice, leaning forward. "It's a matter of public record that Margaret Carter got remarried two months ago—"

Steve looked at his hands.

"—and we both know you didn't come to the 1950s for the Jello molds and polio scares. I mean ...you told her what you had to tell her, right?"

"I did," said Steve.

Parker's shoulders rose in a glaringly Gen Z shrug. "Then what's left to do? At least you know it works out okay for her. It was in her memoirs. She stays married to this one.   
They have I don't know how many kids."

"Just the two," said Steve.

"And good for her, right?" said Peter. He sat up straight. "You ready to go or do you gotta tie anything up first?"

"Interesting choice of words." He folded up the newspaper, slipping a piece of paper into his jacket pocket. "I have some questions."

"Shoot," he said.

"Why'd they send you?"

"I said. I'm your ride home."

"No, I mean why you. We're not exactly close."

"Oh," Parker looked to the side. "It would've made more sense to send Sam—"

"Maybe don't use anyone's real name," Steve suggested.

"—but he flat-out refused to come to the 1950s. Bucky—"

"Names, Queens."

"—refused to get between you and what you were looking for. Look, you want me to go back and get him? These trips cost like ten million dollars each, but if I tell him things didn't work out..." He saw Steve shake his head and went on. "Thor left with Rocket and his friends. Cl— _Hawkeye_ is still under house arrest pending his extradition hearing and..."

"And Nat's gone," Steve finished. "The director could have come himself."

"I wish," said Parker.

"And what did the director tell you to do if I say 'thanks but no thanks'?"

Parker blinked. "You can't be serious. It's not just Carter—"

" _Names_."

"—If you stay here, you can't ever do anything important, even by accident. You have to stay out of history's way."

"Does anything important happen today?"

"Huh?" Parker blinked.

"When you prepared for this mission. You checked tomorrow's newspapers to see if anything else important happened in town today, right? Any big car accidents, any alien invasions?"

"Not that anyone said," said Peter.

"Good to know." Steve stood up. "You need to see something."


End file.
